Documents of Irish Music History in the Long 19th Century

Book excerpt: This volume presents extracts from a number of documents from the long nineteenth century that pertain to the history of music in Ireland. The documents fall into one of three categories: musical notation, text, image. Each chapter contains a copy of a document (or an extract) along with an essay that provides context, explanation and interpretation. The editors have sought to represent a broad range of documents that address aspects of the history of music in Ireland: social history; the economics of musical life; performance practice; musical taste and repertoire; theory and aesthetics; the historiography of Irish music history; national identity, the traditional repertoire. The Irish Musical Studies series is published in association with the Society for Musicology in Ireland.